Mechanism for recovering, transforming, and conserving energy.



I No. 895,006. v L. D

PATENTED AUG. 4,'1908.

ION.

MECHANISM FOR REGOVERING, TRANSPORMING, AND CONSEBVING ENERGY.

4 APPLICATION 1 1 LED HAY 8,}5635.

1 9 36 wz-Qoeb Eggaxmmm i m A V k i.

35 i The object of'my invention 1s fiU EfD 'STA.T E P LFEN OFFICE; j

LEON DION, or wrtknssiaan, PENNsYLvANIA, ASSIGNOR TO 'rna Annarous sLao'rnonnnus'rrc COMPANY, OF WILKES-B'ABRE, PENNSYLVANIA,

MECHANISM roa REcovEmNG, 'rnansroimme, coNsERvI'No ENERGY.

- Naseaooa I To all whom it may come/n:

Be it known that I, Li'zoN DroN, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of- Wilkes-Barre,- in the county of Luzerne and 5 State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain 'new and useful Improvements n Mechan-- ism for Recoverin Transforlnin and Con serving Energy, 0 WhlCll the fol owing IS a specification.

0 'Inthe water service of dwellings and other buildings the water is, as, is well known,

usually supplied to the pipes under considerable pressure, to the end that it may reachthe' upper stories, and, in that condition, is

ossessed of more or less potentiality as a orce, depending of course upon the pressure in which it is supplied to the pipes and is .maintained in them. The force thus containedin the water, whether under greater so or less pressure, has been found to be considgenerator, to conserve such force in the form ,of an electric current, which was stored up in an accumulator and subsequently used for illuminating and other purposes. This arrangement, while,efiicient to a certain degree,

was operative at only one particular point in the piping'of a house orother structure, and so recovered and conserved the energy exerted by the water in passing through the pipe at that particular point alone.

therefore to increase this efliciency, by locating awater motor and generator not only in the pipe which enters the house or other'stru'cture, 'or in the common stand pipe leading therefrom,

-: -0 but also in the individual pipes leading from this inlet pipe, or from the stand pi e, tothe various lavatory devices or to the ot or water receiving receptacles made use of in a dwellm or ot ier structure.

I0 theseends, the invention consists in the. eculiar arrangement of the inlet and distributing or connecting pipes, motors, electric enerators, valves, circuit makers and brea ers, and an electro-magnet, with respect to the various lavatory devices or other water receiving receptacles of a dwelling or other appropriate building, and to a storage batteryor accumulator, whereby when the circuit in which any one of the valves andlavatory devices or water Specification of Letters Patenmatented Adgrl; 1:908. Application filed May 8', 1906: Serial No. 315,148.

receptaclesis located isfmade or broken by "the operation of such valves, the circuit in which the generator in the inlet or supply pipe is located is automatically made or roken in correspondence therewith, through the electro magnet,'all as will hereinafter morefullylappear.

Referring to the accompanying drawings,

in which my invention is illustrated, Figure 1, is a sectional elevation of two floors of a dwelling house or other building, showing my invention applied in connection with a.- water cooler, a 'sink, a bathtub, a wash stand and a water closet, which several devices are shown in elevation with certain of the parts broken away for purpose of illustration. Fig. 2, a vertical section of one form of 'water motor, which may be emloyed in connection with my invention, the

induction'and eduction pipes being shown in elevation, and Fig. 3-, is a front elevation of one of the-valves or faucets, which may be employed in connection with the water purifier, the sink, the bath tub, and wash stand, showing also portions of the electric conductors by means of which any one of the electric generators may be brought into circuit with the storage battery or accumulator when its valve is opened and such circuit broken when the valve is closed. 7

In all the figures like letters of reference are em loyed to designate corresponding parts. I 1? and A indicate the floors of a dwelling house or otherap ropriate building, and B,

C, D, E, and F, in icate respectively a watercooler or purifier, a sink, a ath tub, a Washstand, and a water closet, which several devices when collectively referred to herein will, for convenience of description, be designated as receptacles, and which are or may be of any ordinary or referred con-' struction. In the drawing these receptacles as: disposed on different .fioors, with those on the same floor more or less juxtaposed, but this arran ement, as is obvious, is for convenience o illustration have shown I and other dispositions of them may be adopted, as the arrangement of rooms in the dwelling or other building in which they are employed, or the convenience of their operation may suggest. For connecting these several receptacles with the source of water supply, various arrangements of piping may be selected. In the drawings, however, I have shown this connection'eflected through "'e intervention of a common stand pipe H,

which is rovided with laterally extended branches and I, and is connected with the water main or other source of supply through an inlet pipe K. As thus arranged, each of the receptacles is connected with one or. the other of these branches I and I by short connecting pipes a, extending upward fromrits appropriate branch, with its upper end-over turned whereby to discharge the water into the interior of its respective receptacle, and is provided with an appropriate valve or faucet b through which the flow of Water through its respective pi supply thus effected, the flow of the water to their interiors will be accomplished by opening their appropriate valves when the flow of water along the stand pipe and through its branches and connection to the interior of the receptacles will be permitted, and in or-- a shaftc, and as provided with radial floats '0 extended therefrom and fitted to slide inwardly and outwardly in suitable grooves formed therein, with these floats held normally pressed outward and their outer ends 1n contact with the interior of the casin c, by spiral springs c interposed between t eir inner ends and the bottom of the grooves c in which they are respectively disposed. As thus arranged and. provided, the periphery of the disk 0 runs in contact with the interior surfaces'of the casing c at the point nearest approach of the casing to the shaft 0, as shown at c in Fig. 2, whereby to prevent the passage of the water between the disk and casing at that point, while at all other points the periphery of the disk is more or less remote from theinterior of the casing, forming thereby a passage-way a through which the water admitted at the point of ingress through either the inlet pipe K or one of the branch pi es I or I, flows to the point of egress, w 'ch is or may be connected with either the stand pipe H or one of the short connecting pipes a, as may be desired. Across the passage-way c", as thus formed however, extend the floats 0, against which the water impinges as it flows through such passage-way from the point of ingress to the point of egress, carrying forward with it in its movement the successive floats c and thereby rotating the disk 0 with itscarrying shaft 0'. 'With the rotation of the disk thus effected, and the outer ends of the floats held at all times in contact with the interior'of the 'water is pfrevented from passing them in its pe may be regulated 'and controlled. With t e connectlon' of the various receptacles with the source of water tric generators, tvhi casing, these floats during the rotation of the disk are alternately forced inward andoutward by the alternate action of the casing and of their respective springs, as the floats are carriedsuccessively around to the point I of contact c? of the periphery of the disk with f the interior of the casing, and passed beyond it, with the result that in all positions they may occupy 1n revolving with'the disk the travels t In ough the assage-vreys c.

effectinghe rotation of t e disk c, the travel of the water around ill disk is continued until it arrives at the point 0, where the peinterior of the casing, when it is arrested, as

by an abutment, and its further flow caused to take place through the point of egress and thence through the pipe lesdingtherefrom. While thus the contact of the eriphcry of the disk 0 with the interior of t 1e casing 0 at the oint 0", acts as an abutment to revent the ow of the water around the disk in a forward direction'beyond that oi'nt, it also serves as an abutment against w rich the water entering the casing through the point of ingress acts to prevent it from flowing' around in a backward direction through that point, and causes it to exert its pressure around 1n the opposite direction against the floats, to cause the rotationof the disk as it flows through the casing along the passageway c". i

\Nith the motors of the above or other cori struction, they are preferably located at the junction of the inlet pipe K with the stand pipe'I-I, and at the junctions of the short connecting pipes a of the respective water cooler or purifier B, the sink C, the bathtub D, the wash-stand E, and the water-closet F, with L, L, L and L. As thus arranged, whenever the valve in any one of the short pipes ais opened, and the flow of water through the latter and throu h the inlet pipeispermitted, the operation of t e respective motors in that the same continued until the valve is closed and the flow of water through those pipes thereby interrupted, when the operation of the motors will cease, to be resumed when the valve issgain opened, and so on.

For transforming the power exerted by the motors into electricity, when the motors or I thus fiowing'through t e assage way c, and

80. riphery of the disk runs incontsct with the 'thei'r respective cooperating branch pipes'l' and I, as shown at L,'L

articular short pipe and in the inlet pipe will be effected, and

any'of them main 0 eration, I employ electhus generated in an appropriate storage battery or batteries.

With the inotors are preferebly'in the. shape of dynamos, and store rip the current located as above explained, the electric generators :1, e, f, g, h,

and 1 may be disposed either upon the shafts c of their respective motors, or be separated therefrom and o erated through interways to sui mediate mechanism.

shown the electric generator'd as separated n the drawing I have from its operating motor l1, and operated from it through the intervention of an endless belt 2, whilc'the generators L, L, lit, L, and 1 L 1 have illustrated as mounted upon shafts c of their respective'motors, and either or both of these arran' ements may be adopted vwithin a single cell or a plurality of cells, as

may be preferred. As thus employed, this storage battery is connected with each of the I so ' that generators d, e, f, g, h, and i by appropriate conductors r and s, of which the conductor 1' extends from the positive or pole of the. storage battery M to the corresponding positivepoles of the different generators, while the conductors s extend from the negative orpole of such battery to their corresponding negative poles. With the storage battery M thus connected with the difi'erent enerators, whenever the water is flowing t rough the stand pipe H, and through either of the branches or I and any of the short connecting pipes a, the motors ap ropriate to articular i e a, and to t e inlet and stan pipes, wil g tached generators, and the electric current generated thereby will pass through its ap ropriate conductors 1' and s to the storage attery M,.where it Will be stored for subsequent use. The current thus generated will continue to travel along its appropriate conduc-- tors to the storage batte so long as the water is allowed to flow throug the pipes appropriate to those motors, but will cease to travel immediately the flow of water through them is arrested. Immediate however the motion of the motors and generators is arrested, the charge of electricity stored no in the storage battery would be in. to discharge itself through the circuit tbrmed by the conductors r and s and thev difierent generators, if no provision was; made for breaking these circuits when the motors and their respective enerators are arrested in their movements.

order therefore to provide formaking and breaking the circuit in which each of the generators is-arranged, I equip each of these circuits with a circuit -maker and breaker, which is so constructed and' arranged that, when the generator is brought into operation, the -circuit -in which it is arranged will be closed and broken when its operation ceases.

The form of this circuit breaker may be modified in various e operated with their atinto circuit with the storage battery .With this construction, as will be seem-the tit to the location in which it is to a be employed, and in the circuits in which the generators e,f, g, and h, appropriate. to the water cooler or purifier B, the sink C, the

bath tub D, the wash stand E,- are. employed,

ing pipes a, with the globes or bodies I) of the valves or faucets connected with the proper poles of their respective generators by conductors r, andthe1r stems ormovablememhere 5 provided with projecting lugs b, for I contact with the free ends of the short conductors 1' leading to the conductor r, as

shown. As thus constructed and arranged, when any one of these valves or faucet b 13 closed, and the flow of the water through the same is arrested, the projecting lug b is removed from contactwith the free end of the conductor 1', as shown inFig. 3, and the circuit through that valve or faucet is broken. On the other hand, when the valve or faucet is open to allow of the water. flowing througzh its a 1'0 riate pipe a, the ro'ectin lu will bi: bi bu ht around in d oniact ufith the free end of the conductor r, and the circuit in which that valve or faucet is arranged will be closed. In this condition the circuit will remain until the valve is again closed, when the projecting lu b will again be removed from contact with the free end of the conductor rand the circuit through that valve or faucet will be again broken. Thus, as will be seen, the'making and the breaking of the I circuits through the valves or'faucets b will be effected when the valves or faucets are res ectively opened and closed to permit of the ow of the water throu h then respective pi es a, and the arrest 0 such flow.

he makin and breaking of the circuits in which the va ves or faucets b are located being thus effected as above pointed out, the making and breaking of the circuit in which the generator '5 is located is accom lished through the instrumentality of the ushing lever t, to which is connected one end of the short conductor r, leading from the proper pole of the generator 2', with such lever cooperating with the free end of the conductor 1" connected with the conductor 2*. in its at rest, the flushing lever t wil be removed from its contact with the free end of the short conductor 1", and the circuit in which this generatori is arranged is broken.- On the other hand, .when the outer end of this fiush-- ing lever is de ressed, to flush the water closet and thereliy starts the generator 1;, the. lever t is brought in contact'with the free end of the conductor r, and the circuit in which the generator 11 is arranged thereby brought I making and breaking ofthe circuit in which the generator 2'. is arranged is alternatelyacas above ex complished by brin g the flushing lever t into contact with t e free end of the con-.

ductor r, and carrying it out of contact therewith, by respectively depressing and cuit in which the generator d is arranged is made and broken through the intervention of a spring plate it, which cooperates with the freeends of the short conductors 1' and 1 that respectively extend from the proper poles of the generator, and from the cooperating poles of the battery, as shown.

In its normal position, as when the generator d is at rest, the spring-plate u is by its own resiliency removed from contact with the ends of the conductors r and r, as shown by dotted lines in Fig. 1, and the circuit in which the generator (1- is arranged is thereby broken. On the other hand, whenever the 'enerator d is brought into operation by the iiow of water through the pi es K and H, the s ring-plate u will be carrie in contact with tiie terminals at the end of these conductors by an electro-ma 'net, of the ordinaryor solenoid form, as shown at N, and located in the conductors -r, through which solenoid works a core or armature 'v, as is common to devices of that class as heretofore employed. With the arts arranged and constructed iained 1am able, as will be seen to recover t 1e ener'g stored up in the water in the service pipes of residences and other buildings, at two points, whenever any one of the valves in the short connecting pipes a are opened to allow of the flow of water through it, and, after having transformed it, to conserve the energy for subsequent use. The energy thus recovered and conserved in the form of electricity is applicable to any of the uses and purposes to which the electric current is usually a plied, and in Fi 1 of the drawings, Ihave s iown it as emp oyed for the urposes of illumination, 0 and P being g'con uctors or leads, which are respectively connected at one of their ends to the positive and ne ative poles of the storage battery M, with e ectric lamps w interposed between them in multiple arcs as is common with electric lighting systems as ordinarily in use.

- As thus arranged whenever the electric current is stored in the storage batter -or accumulator M it will pass outward a ong the appropriate lead or conductor and cause the lamps to glow; and in order to permit of the lamps being brought into and carried out of operation when required, I provide one of saaooe i the conductors or leads, as, for instance, the 60 conductor or lead 0, with an appropriate switch 1', through which the circuit in which that conductor or lead is included ma be opened and closed as may be. desire b manipulating the switch in the required (llrection.

Whiie in the drawings 1 have shown, and in the foregoing described my invention asap liedin'con'nection with a watcr-cooleror purier, a sink, a bath tub, a wash bowl, and a water closet, and the electric current' generated and stored u in the storage battery employed for electric ighting, it is to be understood that this is merely illustrative, and that the invention may be employed in connection to secure by Letters Patent of the United States,

The combination, with the lavatory devices and other water receiving receptacles of a dwelling or other similar structure, the inlet pipe of a water service, and connecting pipes intermediate such inlet ipe and the various lavatory-devices and ot er water receiving receptacles, of a water motor and electric generator located in each of these connecting pi es and the inlet pipe, a valve provided wit a circuit maker and breaker coated in each of such connectin pipes, an accumulator or storage battery, electric connections intermediatethe several valves and the accumulator or storage battery, a circu1t maker and breaker arranged in connection with the electric generator of the inlet pipe, and an electro-magnet arranged in circult with the several valves forwoperating the last mentioned circuit maker and breaker, whereby, when the circuit in which any one of the valves is located is made or broken by the operation of its respective valve, the circuit in which the generator in the inlet pipe is locatedis automatically made or broken in correspondence therewith through the electromagnet, substantially as described.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my handthis 4th day of May, 1906.

LEON DION. Witnesses:

' ViiL IAM C. Anna A. LANINCL. 

